The Global Jukebox: A public database of performing arts and culture

The lack of standardized cross-cultural databases has impeded scientific understanding of the role of the performing arts in other domains of human society. This paper introduces the Global Jukebox (theglobaljukebox.org) as a resource for comparative and cross-cultural study of the performing arts and culture. Its core is the Cantometrics dataset, encompassing standardized codings on 37 aspects of musical style for 5,779 traditional songs from 992 societies. The Cantometrics dataset has been cleaned and checked for reliability and accuracy. Also being released are seven additional datasets coding and describing instrumentation, conversation, popular music, vowel and consonant placement, breath management, social factors, and societies. For the first time, all digitized Global Jukebox data are being made available in open-access, machine-readable format, linked with streaming audiovisual files to the maximum extent allowed while respecting copyright and the wishes of culture-bearers. The data are cross-indexed with the Database of Peoples, Languages, and Cultures (D-PLACE) to allow researchers to test hypotheses about worldwide aesthetic patterns and traditions, including earlier findings by Alan Lomax and his research team regarding coevolutionary relationships between the performing arts, social structure and cultural history. The Global Jukebox adds a large and detailed global database of the performing arts to enlarge our understanding of human cultural diversity.